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Immigration reform has been hotly contested issue for both Republicans and Democrats, albeit for different reasons. 

Then-President Bush tried but failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2007, the main sticking point offering legal status to millions of illegal immigrants at the same time securing the U.S. border.

While campaigning for president then Senator Obama stated that in his first year in office he would submit comprehensive immigration reform bill.  “I cannot guarantee that it is going to be in the first 100 days, but what I can guarantee is that we will have in the first year an immigration bill that I strongly support and that I’m promoting.  And I want to move that forward as quickly as possible.”

President Obama repeatedly mentioned this moniker that he wanted immigration reform, but never submitted his own legislation regarding immigration. 

The election of 2012, forced the Republican Party to make a serious adjustment regarding immigration as President Obama won the Latino vote by 71% to 27% over Republican challenger Mitt Romney.   

In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, stated, “it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, and law enforcement—and fix our broken immigration system. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted. I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same.”

Last year the Senate passed comprehensive immigration that would give a path way for citizenship to the estimated 11 illegal immigrates in the United States. 

The bill passed 68 to 32, picking up all Democrats and 14 Republicans.

The bill has moved over to the House where it has stalled over border security.  Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and the other Republicans who voted against Immigration reform over border security. “The bill is “amnesty” because undocumented immigrants would receive provisional legal status to stay in the U.S. before border and enforcement measures are met.” This is still the same continuous issue today.

The House Republican leadership met at its winter meeting released its own immigration reform plan, first dealing with guidelines on dealing how to deal with the over 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. 

“These persons could live legally and without fear in the U.S.,” the principles say, “but only if they were willing to admit their culpability, pass rigorous background checks, pay significant fines and back taxes, develop proficiency in English and American civics, and be able to support themselves and their families (without access to public benefits).”

In the last sentence of the guidelines comes to the very heart of the matter for Republicans, “None of this can happen before specific “enforcement triggers” have been implemented to fulfill our promise to the American people that from here on, our immigration laws will indeed be enforced.”

What does that mean enforcement triggers?  In an interview on MSNBC Wednesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a reform advocate, described a system in which illegal immigrants could come forward and receive probationary status while — not after — border security work is being done. “…You can be on probation, and you have to satisfy the terms of your probation while the border’s getting secured,” Ryan said.

The problem for immigration reform is President Obama! The president speaks of securing the border but routinely enforces laws it likes but many times does not enforce laws he does not; “ObamaCare is a prime example of this!     

Democrats who champion immigration reform see the issue as wedge issue in the upcoming mid-term elections just as they have in the past.  Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group and have in the past two presidential election cycles voted overwhelming for Democrats.  Democrats want this to continue!

Democrats favor amnesty without border security.  Republicans favor border security first.  The last comprehensive immigration reform was in 1986, Then President Reagan passed the law which granted a path way to citizenship.  Unfortunately border enforcement never materialized, this is the current sticking point today.

Finally, the other aspect of comprehensive immigration reform that has not been dealt with by either party, what is Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto doing to take care of his own citizens?

When the discussion on immigration reform is discussed it always focuses on what the U.S. needs to do but no one asks what Mexico is doing to expand opportunities for their own people.  Mexico has no reason in solving this as one of its top revenue source after oil, and tourism is immigrant money flowing back to family inside Mexico.

Immigration Reform will probably be the one issues that gets solved as both parties do not want to face the voting wrath of Hispanic voter heading into the pivotal mid-term elections.

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